


The Hollow Throne

by Solovei



Series: Trope Bingo Fills [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, Asahi likes to draw, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fantasy elements, Kissing, Letters, M/M, OTW Trope Bingo, Prince Azumane Asahi, Prince Nishinoya Yuu, Romantic Fluff, Secret Relationship, Swordfighting, The amount of sex is somewhere between Jane Austen and GRRM
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-27
Updated: 2016-08-27
Packaged: 2018-08-11 07:47:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7882726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solovei/pseuds/Solovei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Besides,” Asahi added, “if my garden were indeed ‘stupid’, why did <i>you</i> come here?” It felt slightly dangerous not to use the proper address, but then, the Crown Prince hadn’t either.</p><p>Prince Yuu averted his eyes, plucking a pencil from the box and fiddling with it. “My father wants us to be friends. Supposedly it would make us look good to the other kingdoms.”</p><p>“... and you think it's a waste of time?”</p><p>“I'd rather be out on the battlefield.”</p><p>---</p><p>  <i>In which two people learn to see past borders</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Fill for the OTW Slack Trope Bingo! Squares used: **Alternate Universe - Royalty/Aristocracy** and **Rivals to Lovers**  
>  Huuuuge thank-you to [Yrindor](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Yrindor/) and [Pent](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Pent/) for their help with this fic!

His Royal Highness Prince Asahi Azumane, Lord of North Dale did not enjoy wearing his parade uniform. The sash kept sliding awkwardly over his hip for one thing, and these high leather boots were really far too warm for the time of year. Also the jeweled pin in his hair was stabbing at his scalp. But all of this was a requirement for official functions, state visits, and the like. If it were up to him, he would have preferred one of his tailored suits, but it wasn’t exactly up to him. Very few things in his life were. This particular occasion definitely called for the most royal finery. After all, he was about to meet the people who had taken his father's kingdom. 

All of this should have been, by all rights, a good thing. After a nearly year-long war, his father's army had surrendered. It meant they lost their sovereignty but kept their lands, and more importantly, their people, or at least most of them. 

The prince felt his hands shaking and grasped them tightly behind his back. The collar was tight around his throat, and he wanted nothing more than to escape to the gardens, away from all these people, their eyes and whispers. He kept thinking he had heard his name and turning to the source of the sound, only to find there nothing but hushed, polite conversation from the courtiers.

“Asahi, stop that.” His mother, standing beside him in her fur stole, hissed. “You’re acting worse than the twins.” 

He tried to find something to occupy his mind, an old trick he often returned to after many boring state functions as a child. He would try to count every flag in the room, or how many women wore a particular color of gown, or mentally recite all the kings of some or another country, backwards. But as the heralders began playing their anthem, he realized suddenly how little this mattered to him. It mattered to his parents, of course, and it mattered to his siblings, but he was the youngest child, the afterthought. Asahi was so far down the line of succession, he barely even registered. By the time he was born, his brothers were already in their late teens and betrothed to noble ladies eager to join the royal family. They had children of their own now, so he didn't expect to inherit the throne, ever. And thus the ownership of a title and a country he would never get was not very high on his list of concerns. 

The great doors of the reception hall opened slowly. Here they came now. He took a deep breath and swallowed the lump in his throat.

“His Royal Majesty, Lord High Captain of the Peaks, King Nishinoya of Sanumantria!” The heralds announced. He knew everything about the mountain kingdom of course, could name their flag and two dozen others, but had never met the royal family in person. The king was accompanied by his wife and children, as well as a handful of retainers and guards. 

Asahi watched as his father bowed deeply. One by one, the rest of his family all did the same, a symbolic gesture to preclude the official negotiation of the terms of surrender. For the next two weeks, the two families would discuss and formally draft a document deciding their futures. 

“It is great to be here, in the valley kingdom of Dalarna. I have long looked forward to the day when our two lands could come together!” King Nishinoya announced to the hall. As he continued his speech, Asahi studied the other faces. Queen Juri, he remembered reading, had been the second daughter of a duke, well-educated and with a keen intellect. She and the king had four children, lined up behind their father much like Asahi and his brothers now stood, with a posture practiced for years to appear both aloof and disciplined at once. Crown Prince Yuu was shorter than him but exuded confidence and aggression. For a second, Asahi caught his gaze, amber eyes framed by jet-black hair slicked back under a traditional headdress. Something about those eyes filled him with fear. He wondered if the Crown Prince had taken part in the war; he wondered if he had killed. He wondered, for a split second, if maybe he had enjoyed it. 

\---

The reception was followed by a banquet; Asahi was thankful to finally the opportunity to sit down after having stood for nearly four hours under the flickering lights of the reception hall as various dukes, ministers, and commentators spoke about the war, the surrender, and any number of things he didn’t commit to memory. 

After politely accepting a dance from the daughter of Duke Ishihara, he made his way back to his seat when he found his path blocked by none other but Prince Yuu, who was standing directly in front of his chair with his arms crossed over his chest. Nervously, he glanced towards someone he knew for help, but nobody was looking in his direction. 

“Ah… Good evening, Your Highness.” He said over the din of the hall, bowing slightly. “Are you enjoying the banquet?”

The Crown Prince replied to his question with an unrelated statement, “So. You’re out of luck for the crown, they tell me.”

Asahi didn’t quite know how to respond, and the confusion must have shown on his face. “That’s unfortunate. Still, there are other ways to get things.” 

“I suppose so, yes.”

There it was again, that spark, like an animal staring down its prey. Looking at Prince Yuu, it was as if Asahi finally grasped the gravity of the situation he and his family had found themselves in. The democracy, the finery, the hospitality - it was all an attempt to secure their future. They had been defeated once. Nothing stopped King Nishinoya from finishing the job right here in their home.

\---

Prince Asahi did not sleep easily that night. He finally drifted off around sunrise and woke up a few hours later. When he joined his mother and nieces and nephews at the breakfast table in their private chambers, he had a strange sense of temporal disconnect - as though he had slept for years without realizing it.

The queen shot him a judgemental glance over her newspaper. “You know, when we named you after the morning sun, we didn't expect you to have such an aversion to it.”

Asahi said nothing, but took a sip of the tea that was offered to him. The table was lined with all manner of food - pastries and cured meats and fresh fruit. He grabbed a few things to put on his plate, suddenly feeling hungry. 

“Will father not be joining us?” he asked, sitting down as one of the youngest children beamed up at him. 

“Your father is already in negotiations with the king. Your brothers, too.”

“Oh. I see.”

So they had gone ahead without him, then. Asahi felt an odd mixture of indifference and envy. It's not that he cared - he didn't want to be there anyway, but he would have liked if someone had asked. 

Finishing his breakfast and leaving his mother to her grandchildren and her newspaper, Asahi retreated to the gardens. This was his favorite place in the entire palace, this one secluded area with the overgrown cobblestone. It was like him in some ways - forgotten, secretive, hiding things within it that nobody cared to look for. It was set a little bit away from the main gardens, lacking meticulously arranged flowers and topiaries. Once, there had been a fountain here, but it had been taken out, leaving only a circle with a shattered mosaic and a stone border that was the perfect height for sitting on. Someone had tried to pretty up the area with a white metal dining set, just a small table and two chairs, but it only made the place look more shabby. He came here as often as he could to get away from the constant interruptions of palace life, the steady stream of people flickering just past his peripheral vision. Here, things were still. Nothing moved and nothing changed, and he loved this place for that.

He would spend hours here - reading or drawing or answering letters. Usually he would pack some food from the kitchens and not return until someone came looking for him. This was the only time he felt as though the hours were truly his own, free from the minutiae of royal obligations.

He rounded the corner, sketchpad and box of pencils in hand, only to realize to his horror that someone had already gotten there first.

And not just any someone. Crown Prince Yuu of Sanumantria. 


	2. Chapter 2

He did not seem to notice Asahi, concentrated as he was on maintaining proper technique as he worked his way through a sword form. His breathing was slow and even as he lunged forward, stabbing empty air, then retreated just as quickly, his sword dancing through a series of parries that flowed seamlessly right back into another advance, an endless cycle of attack and defense and flashing steel.

“My apologies, your Highness, but… I believe this is ...sort of my garden.” Asahi ventured, trying to keep his voice confident and failing. It wasn't just the fact that they were enemies, or that their families were; there was something else that made him uneasy around the Crown Prince. Their encounter at dinner yesterday hadn't helped either. 

Crown Prince Yuu turned to face him, sword still in hand. “Technically, it belongs to me now. Or it will once my my father dies.”

Slowly, Asahi put two and two together. If the heir to the throne was here, then it must be someone else in there with the kings and princes. Probably Queen Juri. “You're not at the negotiations either, then?” He asked carefully.

The Crown Prince set his mouth angrily and turned around again, taking the sword in both hands for a powerful descending strike. “Father says I’ve got a bad temper. Not good at the whole tact and diplomacy thing.” From the way he said it, it seemed like he didn't hold either of those things in very high regard. 

Asahi hesitated before speaking; he still wasn’t entirely sure what the Crown Prince’s intentions towards him were. “Well, perhaps we can share it then, for the time being. I promise you will hardly notice I'm here.” 

“Do whatever you want, I don't care.” 

They carried on like this for the better part of an hour - Prince Yuu practicing his sword forms and Prince Asahi sketching idly. Once in a while each would look over at the other with mixed intent, then quickly turn away as if they had never done it. 

Asahi was the first to break the silence. He glanced down at his sketchbook. He had been trying to finish the landscape from a few weeks ago but found himself flipping to a blank page and drawing a young man with a sword instead. 

“Your Highness, if I could ask... That light part of your hair… were you born with that?” He hadn't noticed yesterday, but now that Crown Prince Yuu had his hair down it was plain to see - a blonde streak just over his forehead. Still, the forwardness of his own question surprised Asahi.

“There's a legend among my people. Once every hundred years the gods of the mountain will choose a child to accomplish great things and perform divine feats. And they will mark that child with lightning. So this is my lightning strike.”

“So… you are the chosen one, then?” Asahi ventured. The Dalarnians did not have their own gods. Or any gods, really. What religion they had seemed to have faded away centuries ago. 

“Probably. I haven't done anything divine yet.”

“Well, I look forward to it.” He said with a chuckle, returning to his drawing. 

The Crown Prince frowned again and slid his sword back into its scabbard. With determination, he walked to where Asahi was sitting and fell into one if the chairs like a child not getting his way. 

“What is your _deal_ , Asahi?”

He was taken aback by both the sudden gesture and the fact that someone had addressed him as anything other than ‘Your Highness’. Usually only his parents called him by his first name. “My deal?”

“Yes. I don't get you. Your family should be begging for their lives after that embarrassing defeat--“

“Surrender,” Asahi corrected.

“Whatever, same thing. And here you are hiding in your stupid garden.”

He took a few moments to think of his reply. It was uncanny how much the question echoed his thoughts from before. As far as he knew, if the Sanumatrians had wanted to kill them all, they had ample opportunity last night. The fact that they didn’t said something about their King and his intentions.

“Well… nothing I can do will change what already happened. I realized a while ago that I have very little influence on most things, especially matters of the state. So, why not enjoy what time I have here and do what's asked of me?

“Besides,” Asahi added, “if my garden were indeed ‘stupid’, why did _you_ come here?” It felt slightly dangerous not to use the proper address, but then, the Crown Prince hadn’t either. 

Prince Yuu averted his eyes, plucking a pencil from the box and fiddling with it. “My father wants us to be friends. Supposedly it would make us look good to the other kingdoms.”

“... and you think it's a waste of time?”

“I'd rather be out on the battlefield.”

\---

The negotiations lasted for two weeks, during which time King Nishinoya and his family were guests of the Dalarnian palace. This involved many tours of the countryside, visits to important historical monuments, and lavish dinner parties with the most prominent members of society. Prince Asahi found all of it extremely exhausting, even more so than the war had been. Whenever he had a moment to himself, he escaped to his garden hideaway. And, much to his surprise, he kept finding the Crown Prince there as well. 

One day he arrived to the garden early in the morning, trying to store up the mental energy he would need to make it through a banquet that evening. His father had been leaving hints that it was about time for him to be choosing a bride, but everyone knew that with Asahi being seventh in line to for a throne that was currently in jeopardy, his prospects were slim. Any time he was set up with this or that girl, it seemed like an exercise in futility, ending only in disappointment on their part. ‘He looks very dashing, but as soon as he opens his mouth, he’s like a sad kitten’ was a sentiment most of the young society women shared. 

He was lost in his thoughts as he made the familiar way to his favorite spot, ignoring his surroundings until the hilt of a practice sword was suddenly pressed into his hand. “What is this?” Asahi asked, blinking. 

The Crown Prince was already doing up the buckles on his bracers.

“I'm getting out of practice. Spar with me,” he said simply. It sounded like a command, but somewhere in there was a request. 

Asahi considered the weapon he held. It was a finely crafted thing, though nowhere near as nice as the one his opponent wielded. He knew how, of course. He could appreciate the fluidity, the savage grace of movement - but the idea of taking a life filled him with a cold fear. He was secretly happy that his mother had forbidden him from going anywhere near a battlefield. 

“I don't know if this is a good idea.” He said slowly, “I'm much taller than you.” Taller, and more solidly built, too. Crown Prince Yuu was a small bundle of wiry muscle, controlled and disciplined. Asahi got his strength from his height, true, but he enjoyed long treks in the countryside, and he was a decent climber. 

“Will I always be matched in battle with opponents of my stature? Come on, I want to see how good you are.” There was something almost… playful in the Crown Prince’s voice, a boyish sort of excitement. 

He had a point. Reluctantly, Asahi agreed. 

The sword he held was unfamiliar, and it showed - the balance was different from his usual sword, and he struggled to adjust. 

Prince Yuu made a few testing attacks, keeping his distance but lunging in aggressively. Asahi dodged most of them and parried the last on the downswing, thankful that he hadn't forgotten everything just yet. He watched carefully as the Crown Prince made fluid steps, circling him, looking for an opening in his defense. Actually, this sword felt better than his own, which was now gathering dust in its mount in his room. It felt more like an extension of his arm rather than an object that he held physically, more responsive to his movements. He realized how easy it would be to take a life with a blade like this, how effortless one’s task when the tools are an encouragement rather than a barrier. This thought unnerved him slightly.

“Are you going to make the heir to the throne wait? Attack already,” Prince Yuu said with an impatient smirk as he tried to come in from the left. 

Asahi stepped back and turned, making sure to keep facing his opponent. “I'm the youngest, remember? Waiting is my whole life.” 

Prince Yuu’s short stature gave him agility, so Asahi had to be prepared and make smart, concentrated moves to avoid him. The Prince's sword flashed in suddenly from his left, almost catching him by surprise, but he managed to turn it to his advantage at the last second. 

As they traded attacks and parries and sarcastic remarks, Prince Asahi was surprised to find that he was actually enjoying himself. Before this, he hadn't touched a sword since he finished his training. Maybe he needed to release all the nervous energy he'd been running on for the past several days. Maybe he was finally starting to understand Prince Yuu on his own terms, without the filter of the war and the rivalry of their nations to get in the way. 

After their sparring session, Asahi stopped fearing those intense amber eyes. They swapped stories of palace life and overbearing parents. Prince Yuu spoke at length about his victories in battle and expeditions to the uncharted mountains of his kingdom; and although Asahi could barely stomach the grisly details, he came to relish the passion in the Crown Prince’s eyes, the way he seemed to forget his station and speak from his heart. For his part, Asahi told his guest of the valleys and dales he loved, the history he had studied, the places he hoped to see in person someday. He even attempted to teach the Prince Yuu to draw, but the Crown Prince's lack of patience foiled even his best efforts.

When it came time for the Sanumantrian delegation to return home, Asahi found himself at a loss. As much as he hadn't intended to, he and Prince Yuu had become friends. 

On the evening before their departure, they sat once again in the garden. It was a clear night in early spring. There were crickets hiding in the overgrown hedges; Asahi could hear their hollow songs. He wished time would stop and allow them just a few more days together. The truth was, he had never had a friend like Yuu. Growing up, the only people his age had been the servants’ children, and he had liked them well enough but there was that insurmountable gap due to the circumstances of his birth. He was different from them, but also different from his brothers, who were busy raising families and helping to run the country. And the strange thing was, although he and the crown prince seemed very different from each other, they felt a closeness neither had experienced before. Asahi tried to think of something to say, but nothing fit. Nothing could really do it justice.

“Surely father will let me come back if I ask him.” 

“I think so… the negotiations seemed to go well.”

He felt something touching his hand. He looked down, thinking it was a moth, but found that Prince Yuu had covered it with his own. It was warm, slightly paler than his, though not as small as he had expected. 

“I really enjoyed myself here.” the Prince said quietly. 

Prince Asahi smirked, but made no move to part their hands. “Not as much of a waste of your time as you thought, then?”

The Crown Prince took the knot of Asahi's cravat in his free hand and pulled him down until they were level with each other. 

For half a second, Asahi was far too aware of the speed his heart was beating. It took another half for him to realize what was happening and be glad for the cover of darkness and the high hedges around them. The distance between their lips closed as if it was preordained. Asahi closed his eyes and felt the soft kiss dissolve in his mouth. 


	3. Chapter 3

The sounds of the Sanumantrians’ departure filtered in through his open window - raised voices from the servants, horses whinnying impatiently, the squeak of wheels. Asahi lay there and took it all in, but he could not will himself to move. He knew his absence would be noted; he didn’t care. He wanted to stay in bed forever. No, he wanted to be back in that garden, back in the space of last night. No, he wanted to be back before any of this happened, before he got too close. 

He didn’t know what he wanted. 

He knew what he _should_ want - a wife, a brood of children, a small estate in the country, royal engagements, and an honorable death after having accomplished what life set out for him. But more and more his heart yearned for different things entirely. A touch of love, not obligation; a pencil in his hand, not a sword; a small cabin in the foothills where he could live surrounded by things he created. 

Four weeks later, Prince Asahi received a letter bearing the stamp of the Royal Family of Sanumantria. As much as he wanted to open it right there and then, he waited until he could return to his chamber after morning lessons.

The letter began in a familiar way:

_“Greetings to you, Your Highness, Lord Of North Dale._

_I would like to formally express my gratitude for the hospitality you offered to me and my family…”_

This was standard. He had read (and written) things like this hundreds of times in his life. His eyes scanned the pages. Yuu spoke about his hopes for the development of the border region, the health of his grandmother, the wishes for continual peace between countries.

Asahi set the letter aside and looked at the envelope. On the outside it appeared to be nothing special. The stamp, the seal, his name written on the front in practiced calligraphy. Carefully, he undid the bindings holding the envelope together, and here - here was what he was looking for, written in much smaller hand on the inverse:

_“My dear Asahi,_

_I am sorry I could not say goodbye. My father wanted us to leave at first light, and I had to help get all of my brothers and sisters ready to go. I wanted to, but at the same time, what would I have said? What is there to say? I need time to think, and sadly, thinking is not my best skill. As I said, I have a bad temper, do things without considering the consequences. So now I believe I need to think about what happened. _

_I look back on the time we spent together every day. I don't know if I have ever been so happy! Now every time I hear crickets I think of you. (There aren't a lot of crickets here. We don't have a garden like you do, but trust me when I say I think of you a lot.)_

_I have to confess, I did a bad thing. When you weren’t looking, I took one of the pages from your drawing book. I wanted something to remember you by and it was such a lovely picture. The one of the valley at sunrise. I hope one day I can return it to you._

_Yuu.”_

Asahilooked at the paper in his hand for a while, reading it over and over again until he was called to afternoon tea. A bundle of confusion and longing overtook him. Had it merely been a friendly gesture, or was there something more between them? He wished he could have asked Prince Yuu in person. Perhaps that was how one showed gratitude in Sanumantria - but the slowness, the _intention_ of it, that was what stuck with him the most. There was no mistaking it for anything other than what it was. He just needed to figure out _what_ it was.

Thankfully, there was much to occupy him in the meantime. The people of Dalarna had mixed opinions of the surrender and many questions about the future of their country. Prince Asahi accompanied his mother on several tours of the country meant to quell some of that unease and reassure the people that the royal family was still looking out for them. 

He took the cravat he had worn on his last night with Prince Yuu and hid it behind his sketchbooks. He never wanted anyone else to touch it. 

He tried not to think about the political ramifications of that kiss too much.

They continued to exchange their letters, scribbled on envelopes and hidden in plain sight. Sometimes Asahi would slip in a picture or two that he had drawn, carefully inserted between sheets of paper talking at length about the history of the Dalarnian Royal Castle. 

The last letter arrived just as the leaves began to turn their colors. This one was relatively short, but the news it held made Asahi grasp a solid object for support. 

_“Asahi,_

_My father wants someone to stay in Dalarna for the time being to ensure the conditions of the surrender are being followed. In short I have convinced him to allow me to take up the task!_

_You will see me on the first snow.”_

Here.He was coming here, again. Asahi could feel his hands shaking. For half a year he had imagined it, wistfully constructing scenarios in his head like a blushing girl, but now -- now it was real. Now he would be _here_ , in the same country, in the same building. It was not enough to know that they were under the same moon, now they could be close enough to touch. 

He knew that part of him should be angry. After all, the Sanumantrians clearly did not trust them to follow through on the agreement on their own and felt as though they needed to keep an eye on them for the foreseeable future. And yet, he wondered if perhaps this was all orchestrated by Prince Yuu himself. He remembered what he told him, that first day in the garden, that King Nishinoya wanted them to act friendly. He wouldn't put it past the Crown Prince to make his father believe the Dalarnians weren't keeping their end of the bargain so that he would have an excuse to come back. He was flattered, yes, but that was a foolish thing to do.

On the day of the first snow, Prince Asahi stood in the courtyard and waited. This time, there was no grand reception, no heralds calling out the arrival, no bowing to new overlords. Just a lone horse, snowflakes catching in dark hair, and a long embrace. 


	4. Chapter 4

Asahi had volunteered to assist the Crown Prince in his assignment partly so they could spend more time together, but also because Yuu had encouraged him in his letters to be more ambitious around his parents. _Just because you are the youngest, doesn't make you useless. You have to make your own place in the world,_ he had written. 

Whenever they had a free moment, they would escape to the gardens. There they talked at length about things neither felt were safe for letters, felt could only be trusted to air and time. Occasionally one of them would find the courage to slip a hand under a sleeve, or angle their knee just so, stealing the briefest of touches like scraps of food from a lavish table. Both knew they wanted more, and both were held back by a great many things. 

On top of that, Yuu had insisted that, as far as everyone else was concerned, their relationship should appear as one of strained but friendly rivalry. They worked together, but only, they told people, because they had to. 

“The Crown Prince? He is… fine, I suppose. I wish they would have sent someone more experienced,” Asahi would tell his older brother. “I have never felt like this with anyone before,” he would tell Yuu that same night. 

“Who, Prince Asahi? Kind of a loser if you ask me. He has had a free ride up until now, basically, but I think he’s getting bored; that’s the only reason he’s doing this,” Yuu would tell one of the ministers. “I wish we could travel around the valley together, just pack a couple of horses and disappear for months,” he would say to Asahi an hour later. 

The Crown Prince had been at the palace for about two months when Asahi found himself woken in the dead of night by a knock on his door. He hadn't asked for anything, so for a moment fear gripped him.

“Asahi? It's me,” came Prince Yuu’s urgent whisper. “Can I come in?”

He rushed out of bed to unlock the door. “How did you… did anyone see you?”

“No, I used the servants' passage.”

Lit by the dying embers of the fireplace, Yuu looked calm and composed, as if he did this sort of thing all the time. Asahi wished he could be like that, give off that sort of impression for more than a few hours a day. He leaned down and kissed him, just once, as if he could learn some of that easy confidence through touch. 

As they broke apart, Prince Yuu reached over and touched a lock of Asahi's hair. “It’s longer than I thought. It looks nice like this, though.” he said.

Asahi blushed, thankful for the dimness of the room. 

One kiss led to another and another; he felt hands on his shoulders, making their way down his sides and fluttering finally across his stomach. Asahi felt self-conscious suddenly, standing there in front of the prince in his bedroom without the safety of the garden to hide him. This, in fact, was the first time they had been completely alone together. Asahi could not be certain that it wouldn’t be the last, so he summoned up his courage. “I… um. Would you like to share my bed tonight?” He asked in a hushed voice. 

Yuu was already busy working the laces on his shirt, but paused with a raised eyebrow. “I thought that was implied at this point.” 

“Yes… Sorry.”

“Stop apologizing. You need to -- you’re allowed to want things, you know?”

Asahi tried to summon up that courage again. “Alright. I want you in my bed tonight.”

“Good. So do I.”

\---

“Well, that was certainly a divine feat.” Asahi said afterward as they lay together in a sweaty tangle of limbs, Yuu resting his head on his shoulder. 

Yuu stifled a laugh. “If that was all the gods blessed me for, I can live with that,” he said slowly, running a hand down Asahi's thigh.

The quiet between them reminded him of the cool seclusion of the garden, comfortable in its stillness. Outside of this, he knew, was a swarm of worry, and he only needed to glance at it for the swirling doubts to beset him again: what if they were discovered, what would happen when they both were betrothed to other people, what did this mean for their respective countries 

So he didn’t look. He turned a blind eye to all but the person in his arms. For the first time in a long time, Prince Asahi slept in peace. 

Yuu roused him sometime just before dawn, shaking his shoulder gently. “I need to go… back to my own rooms. They'll notice if I'm not there.” He was already climbing out of bed, trying to find his clothes 

Asahi caught his hand just before he moved out of reach. “Will you come see me again?” he asked, his voice husky from sleep.

Prince Yuu smiled and leaned down to kiss Asahi’s forehead. “I'd love to.”


End file.
